China has high-speed trains, but try getting a ticket for one
You can book online but you have to queue just as long as ever, or longer, to collect your tickets, and when you get somewhere the station is now two hours' drive from the place it serves, moans Cecilie Gamst Berg
It is a strange law of nature that no matter how many roads you build, and no matter how wide they are, they will still fill up with cars immediately.
In the same way, it seems, no matter how modern the Chinese rail network becomes, it still takes just as long (if not longer) to get tickets as it always has. And with the new stations built up to two hours' drive outside the towns they serve, it still takes exactly the same amount of time (if not longer) to get from A to B.
My friend F's going-away trip to China was a case in point.
There we were, all modern and well prepared with online bought-and-paid-for tickets on the bullet train from Changsha, capital of Hunan province, to Zhangjiajie, of Avatar fame, apparently, and rooms booked in an interesting-looking "new old" village of some sort in walking distance from the craggy karst formations.
Except ... the new law of nature. Just because you've bought tickets online doesn't mean you can actually get them.
